The 137-122 vote puts Waxman in charge of a committee that is crucial to many of the top legislative issues dear to President-elect Barack Obama, including energy, the environment and health care.

Waxman’s challenge has stirred up the environmental blogosphere. Dingell had been chairman or ranking Democrat of the committee since 1981. After leaving today’s closed-door vote, Waxman told reporters, “Seniority is important, but it should not be a grant of property rights to be chairman for three decades or more,” Politico reported.

He had complained in the past that the committee has not moved quickly enough on global warming and other issues, The Los Angeles Times reported today.

Dingell, 82, was seen by many as too close a friend to the energy and transportation industries. The blog Wonk Room recently reported that he and his supporters had substantially more financial contributions from the oil and coal industries than Waxman and his supporters — six times more from Big Oil, nine times more from King Coal.

Dingell himself attacked Waxman in a recent radio interview, the environmental blog Gristmill reported, calling the California congressman an “anti-manufacturing left-wing Democrat” who has a “serious lack of understanding of people in the auto industry and manufacturing generally.”

It was unclear how the New Mexico delegation voted, but the Independent reported yesterday that Rep.-elect Harry Teague, from the 2nd Congressional District, was a Dingell supporter. Neither Reps.-elect Martin Heinrich (CD1) nor Ben Ray Lujan (CD3) had chosen sides yesterday, but both were advocates of green energy while on the campaign trail.

More from The Washington Independent:

Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress, has close ties to Detroit’s automakers. For decades he’s led efforts to thwart the plans of some other Democrats to limit tailpipe emissions and raise fuel-efficiency standards. Waxman, just elected to his 18th term, has long advocated for these changes. With an Obama administration set to take the White House in January, environmentalists are drooling at the thought that the liberal Californian could be the gatekeeper to many of Obama’s ambitious green-energy plans — which would have to pass through the Energy and Commerce Committee.

NMI’s Matt Reichbach contributed to this report

Rep. Henry Waxman of California is taking on Rep. John Dingell of Michigan in a Democratic battle for the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. And Teague has already decided to back Dingell, according to The Crypt, a blog from Politico.

Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle’s office distributed a list on Tuesday of three newly elected lawmakers who are supporting Dingell. Michigan’s two newest Democrats — Gary Peters and Mark Shauer — and Rep.-elect Harry Teague of New Mexico are backing the chairman to keep his gavel. Doyle is part of Dingell’s whip team trying to help him retain the chairmanship.

So what is this leadership battle about?

Marc Ambinder, political blogger for The Atlantic, writes it is all about power; the Energy and Commerce Committee will be among the most powerful committees in the House under a Barack Obama administration that will emphasize energy policy.

Waxman wants the job for obvious reasons: the committee will be the most powerful in the new Congress, one that’ll deal with health care and energy legislation. (Ways and Means? Pleghghgh.) A lot of impatient liberal Democrats want to see Dingell go; he is too old, too blinkered in his thinking and too at odds with the party on energy, they say; just as many, it seems, want him to say, including some influential members of the leadership, even if for reasons of preserving the integrity of the seniority system.

And this power-grab isn’t new to Congress – or to Waxman.

Our sister site, the Washington Independent, writes this is similar to a battle 30 years ago where then-Rep. Richardson Preyer of North Carolina was ousted as head of a subcommittee by none other than Waxman, way back in 1979:

The big domestic issue of the day was health care. President Jimmy Carter was pushing legislation tackling rising hospital costs and health insurance policy. Representing North Carolina, Preyer was naturally a defender of the tobacco industry, which made him no friend of cancer groups. Also, his family was heavily invested in the pharmaceutical industry. Critics, including Waxman, accused him of having conflicts of interest.

Of course, Teague may not even get a chance to vote.

Again from Ambinder:

Senior Democratic aides expect that the vote will go to the full caucus; all the loser of the steering committee vote has to do is present a letter with 35 House members. The full vote would be Thursday via secret ballot.

The steering committee vote is today. If it is clear that the loser does not have the votes to win the seat in the a full caucus, he will not ask for a vote of the full caucus. But if it is unclear, look for a pitched battle between Waxman and Dingell.